Los Angeles News

SANTA ANA Jurors who heard a prosecutor Tuesday outline the deaths of a couple killed for their boat and how an Anaheim man had his throat slit for $50,000, will hear the defense attorney call his own client guilty.

Gary Pohlson, whose client, Skylar Deleon, 29, faces a possible death sentence, said he will concede his client's guilt in his opening statement Tuesday afternoon, he said outside the courtroom Tuesday morning.

But conceding guilt is not the same as pleading guilty, Pohlson said, and the jury will still hear all the evidence and decide the charges.

But Pohlson said he would contest the meaning of some of the evidence in the his opening statement, which he said he expected to last about 15 minutes.

"We disagree with some of what the facts mean, not in regard to whether Skylar is guilty, but did he do all the things that they say he did, was he as bad an actor as they say he was, were there other people involved, for example, his wife, his father, this kind of stuff."

"I'm not going to actually apportion blame," Pohlson said. "I'm going to leave it up to them to make that decision."

"He's fine with it," Pohlson said, referring to Deleon. "That's what he wants to do. He admits his guilt."

Because of the high stakes of the case, Pohlson said jurors would have to hear all the evidence, even if they were called upon to consider only if Deleon should get the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

"As the D.A. pointed out in his argument, the facts of the case are relevant in a penalty phase," Pohlson said. "So, even if we weren't doing a guilt phase, we'd still have to put on those facts because the jury has to know that."

Matt Murphy, a senior deputy district attorney, spent the morning laying out in sometimes poignant language the horror Tom and Jackie Hawks must have experienced before Deleon and his co-defendants allegedly tied the couple to an anchor and tossed them into 4,000 feet of water off Newport Beach.

John F. Kennedy, 47, of Long Beach, and Alonso Machain, 25, of Pico Rivera, are also charged in the murder, which was allegedly committed to steal the Hawkses' 55-foot trawler, the "Well Deserved."

While Jackie Hawks, 47, cried that she was too young to die, her 57-year-
old husband stroked her hand as the two were tied together -- her back against his chest, Murphy said.

The vessel was 55 miles out to sea, according to previous testimony from Machain, who has cooperated with police and is expected to testify against Deleon.

As police zeroed in on Deleon, he told a friend that the coast was clear as far as he was concerned.

"`Hey man, no body, no murder,"' Deleon told the friend, according to the prosecutor.

In addition to the killings of the Hawkses, who disappeared on Nov. 15, 2004, Deleon is accused of murdering 45-year-old John Jarvi of Anaheim on Dec. 27, 2003.

Jarvi, who Deleon met in the Seal Beach jail, also was conned, prosecutors said. He withdrew $50,000 for what he told his mother would be a "no-lose" business deal and was later found with his throat slit next to a roadway in Ensenada, Mexico.

The two cases ran on separate tracks, until a judge in September agreed to consolidate them into one. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Deleon if he is convicted.

Pohlson said he has some bones to pick with Murphy's opening statement.

"There's a number of things with regard to the Mexico murder and the way things went down on the boat," Pohlson said when asked about the things he will take issue of as he cross-examines witnesses. "Also in terms of who else was involved in the planning. If you listen them, only Sklar was planning this thing."

Deleon is charged with two counts of murder and the special circumstance allegation of multiple murder and murder for financial gain. He is also charged with murder and the special circumstance of murder for financial gain in connection with the Jarvi slaying.

Deleon's former wife, Jennifer Henderson was convicted for her role in the murders. She brought the couple's baby along when the sale of the boat was initially discussed in order to put the Hawkses at ease, according to the prosecution. She also helped Deleon clean parts of the boat after the slayings, Murphy alleges.

Henderson, who had two children with Deleon, was sentenced to life in prison without parole last October.

Kennedy, who is not charged in the Jarvi slaying, will be tried separately in January. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against him as well.

Deleon as a youngster appeared in a non-speaking role in several episodes of the "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers" television series.

(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)